>> coming up in just a minute, we hear from mark smith followed immigrant children separated from their parent for the pbs documentary "separated children at the border." live on wednesday, andrew wheeler, the acting administrator of the epa testifies the weather senate and -- before the senate committee. nasa'sreviewing exploration of the solar system on cease then -- solar system. you can also watch all of our live programming online or at the free c-span radio app. joining us is martin smith.

out,s a new documentary taking a look at childhood separation at the border. mr. smith, good morning. >> good morning. >> where does your documentary come in? >> we are on the current timeline. in time and look at the previous administration's immigrationeal with policy that worked. a lot of the infrastructure in terms of family detention centers was done under the obama administration. they didn't consider separating children, which is an interesting part of the documentary. they did not consider it along, but it came to the table and they considered it.

we have policy discussions with obama and former trump administration. the chief of ice. we look at both policy and the family. them young children who we interview as well about the consequences for them, for being separated from their parents, thinking that they would never see them again. how much access did you get and what did you learn from that easement? -- engagement? >> we learned that the trauma is real. it was not an easy experience at all. they have either a 2 -- or angert issues

issues. i think it is hard for some people to imagine what it feels like to be separated from their parents and believe that they will not see them again. some immigrants came across very worried about the law and did not want to participate. to many of them. we found some that were comfortable and willing to share their it or answers with us. if you want to ask him questions about producing this andmentary, democrats republicans. if you live along the border and have some perspective you want to offer. mr. smith, we will show you a little bit of the documentary --

we will show our viewers that. this is in el salvador with a father separated from his daughter. a lot of this will be in spanish, but here is the documentary. traveleddays later, i to el salvador to visit a father who had been separated from his six-year-old child. after crossing into the u.s. illegally. villagend him in a tiny three hours outside the capital. it had been one month since he had seen his daughter. he was calling a shelter in arizona where she was being held. >> what would to say to her right now?

[speaking spanish] >> he gave me a tour of his one-room home. >>

>> do you have pictures of her? host: that documentary will be on the pbs frontline and you can see that tonight. host: that documentary will be on the pbs frontline and you can see that tonight. mayor having a bit of a signal problem from martin smith's line. but we will take your calls on the policy. hopefully we bring them back into the conversation in a bit. we start with george on the republican line. us rightith not with now but go ahead. george, hello? let's go to kevin. in texas, living on the border.

fromr: i am calling westborough. withend of mine works several coworkers from honduras. thetwice i have spoken to gentleman from honduras. trump --em was before after the election and i asked of peoplethe slowdown trying to cross the border. of theses quite aware type of instructions that were being given to people wishing to cross the border. theyif they would claim were fleeing violence and things like that. he was aware of it. talked to him later on,

several months later on. and he said, again. these communities who came to the united states, strictly for economic reasons. to flee violence although there is violence in impoverished countries. but they came here for economic reasons. the second time i spoke with him groupit, it was after the came across mexico and the caravan -- in the group. and he said the understanding was that if this protest would highlight -- and it was a messaging thing. host: do you think that being state, do a border you think washington, d.c. gets the perspective you bring on this issue? caller: i think most people are

aware of these concepts. debatesr side of the you want to be on or whichever side of the aisle you were on, people pick and choose what they like to frame. host: let's go to austin, texas. judas, go ahead. if any i was wondering sort of disciplinary action can be taken against the officials in the government? you know? over the cruelty in separating over 2000.ren, most people are very upset about this and there should he some sort of looking into this. not just stopping it but disciplinary action. host: that was judas -- that was

judas in texas. sorry for those complications. mr. smith, could you give some context to the things we heard? what happens with the family? and guest: he lives in a small village three hours outside the capital and he was in a soccer match and he got into an argument over a dirty play. and he got into that argument with the brother of a gang major for 18th street, a gang down there along with ms 13. and that was enough to get his life threatened. he was afraid for his life. to answer to the u.s.

your first collar, he has an hondurasto a fellow in . there are people who want to come here for economic betterment. many refugees in our past came here for economic betterment. but studies have shown that the majority of these people are fleeing violence. they're fearing for their safety. but thenecdote is fine broader look at this in studies have shown that the violence is real and one doesn't have to spend too much time down there to see that. anyway, he came up with his daughter and immediately cross and within a few hours after being held in a detention center, a processing center in texas, he was separated. thank you for joining us. we go to the independent line with mike.

go ahead. caller: what do you think can be done to actually stabilize these arer countries where people coming from? as far as our policy or trade practice or stuff like that? to help people in el salvador? to reevecan be done amp naturalization process and system to help get people here who should be here, faster or whatever the case may be? the missouri we are having some difficulties with the signal from martin smith is so we try . we will be taking your calls on the topic on those event happening at the border. you can give us your first active, (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 four republicans.

.ndependents, (202) 748-8002 if you're a border resident, (202) 748-8003. in north carolina on the republican line. caller: i'm not on a border state but we have a big influx , south of the border people appear. -- up here. the liberals always saying this is a nation of immigrants. 1920's, back in the 20th century they came through ellis island. welfare, theiven food stamps and housing and all that. they came in and worked. their sum, the mafia done crimes in everything like that. year to $116 billion a

assist illegal immigrants in our country. they need to do something with the governments down there because they are from mexico, el salvador, guatemala. they are all controlled by the drug cartels. there's so much money in it. catholic, religion is which they do not believe in birth control. you can't take care of your kids down there, why have so many kids up there? host: let's hear from that in virginia -- from matt in virginia. caller: i would like to look at the history of the problems in central america. if we look back to the 1980's and 1990's, trump talks about ms 13 all the time not understanding that problem was created in our criminal justice system. creation a

of our prison system. the gangs formed in los angeles and we exported it back to el salvador as we took those people and ship them back to el salvador, honduras, those countries. we don't really have a solution for fixing those countries. when we talk about immigration we don't talk about the violence in honduras and el salvador. how we need to fix those countries with our policies. we spend millions of dollars in iraq and afghanistan and south korea and germany yet we are spending very little on our own hemisphere trying to fix the problems. what we arehalf of spending in iraq and afghanistan in helping el salvador fix its problems maybe we wouldn't have such large immigration issues. host: let's hear from louisiana. republican line, nancie. hello. caller: pbs documentaries are some of the best. i am in the state of louisiana.

louisiana's history goes back to the 18th century. we are one of the biggest melting pots in the country, other than san francisco or new orleans. california. the problem we are dealing with, we are creating an instant problem like we're facing a broad. the thing i don't understand, my father, who fought in world war ii for the freedom of this country and the immigrants that came to this country, we are either getting people from this country that fought in these wars that we are dealing with right now. i don't understand what is happening with the republican party. what happened to common decency?

we started in the 18th century. host: that pbs documentary that separated children at the border. you can see that tonight at 10:00 on pbs. online you can go to the website for more information. we are trying to reestablish the signal with martin smith. as we discussed on this issue we will try mr. smith again for the apologies for this. i know you talked with those children and parents separated. what about those along the border? we've been talking to residents. what did you learn from them those who live along the border? , i spoke mcallen texas to a restaurant owner in downtown mcallen. comfortable with people that were coming up and

working. he had no problems with the immigration. he was in fact very uncomfortable with the policy of separating these people from their children as a punishment for coming in. if you look at a map of the county's that voted blue or red and you look along the border fewp you will find quite a blue voting districts surprisingly. as you move toward the center of the country, it is solidly red. it seems the people who live further from the border have around immigration than do the people along the border. i remember you were talking with a farm owner or perhaps a landowner walking along a fence and he was telling you about instances of what he found including dead bodies.

guest: he would be the exception to what i just said. he is strongly against anybody coming up into the country illegally. he would like to put caps on it. thatns a local militia looks for people coming across his land and notifying border patrol. he also has these large laminated posters of dead migrants. there's been about 7000 dead migrants found along the stretch of the southern border since 2000. people who have died of hypothermia or dehydration. he seemed to take some pleasure in showing off these pictures. he put an electric fence. you can see all of this in the documentary tonight. mike vickers is his name. host: that is 10:00 on pbs.

separated children at the border. george, you're on with our guest martin smith. ourer: i would like to know children and parents separated from only the ones that come in and cross illegally or also the ones that come in at the regular ports of entry or just illegal crossings? guest: the policy and practice, as i understand it, is to separate those who come in illegally between ports of entry. some of them come up not knowing where they should enter. they've hired a coyote or smuggler to get them up and they bring them to the river or the border. they are sent across, not fully aware of what they are getting into. they have a right under u.s. and international law to cross illegally. it is a misdemeanor. it is not a major crime.

they look for border patrol to turn themselves in to apply for asylum. the others who come in through legal ports of entry are not always accepted. many report being turned away. border patrol, the administration, the government will say we are not turning them away just telling them to come back another day because we don't have the capacity to handle them. to take them into processing detention centers so we tell them to come another day. some of these border towns are controlled by some notoriously violent gangs so they are not comfortable being in mexico and they want to get out. some of them choose to take legal route. -- the illegal route. caller: good morning. i think a large issue we are having in america now, there are

no definitions that hold true anymore. religiousans fled discrimination. they fled because they were under authoritarian rule. they did not come here as pioneers unless you were a conquistador or native american, you are a refugee. you fled, you left. we have more people in prison than anywhere else and we are singleof old ladies, mothers and young children but we are not afraid of a standing army with 7000 nuclear weapons in russia? in mixed ascents. -- it makes no sense. guest: i would like to point out -- peopley a legal who are caught illegally crossing the border our numbers are down and they have been

relatively flat for quite a few years. back in 2000 it was about 1.6 million people were crossing illegally or they were caught and now we're back -- at about 300,000. penn state pretty much at that level for some time. when we talk about a crisis at the border you have to put that in perspective and look at what that means. we are looking at relatively low numbers. shownerous studies have these people, when they come into the country to work, do pay taxes, contribute. the notion that they are somehow leaching off of the wealth of the country does not appear to stand up in the studies i've seen. host: from chicago, independent line. barbara, you are next. caller: i was wondering about of immigrants. a lot of things really you don't see very much. they could come back stronger

if police,trying to

border guard yet all sorts of jobs and he rose to become the acting director of ice. determined -- the administration determined he would have a hard time being approved in this senate hearing for confirmation so he stepped down. through this policy initiation he was the acting director.

i asked him about his approach to this credit was pretty much black and white, we have a law, let's arrest these people and process them and prosecute them -- prosecute them, excuse me, for a criminal offense. i asked him if he'd heard the tape of a young girl crying that made so many headlines a few weeks back and he said he had .ot and i was surprised by that i offered to play for him and i did. his initial response was i've seen a lot in my 34 years i don't need to hear children crying. but he listened and he was moved and you can see the moment in the documentary. he then comes back up after listening to it and he is shaken by it. he says we have to enforce the law. he sees this as an issue of

enforcing the law rather than thinking harder about how to have a humane policy at the asylum, whichves is a legal right under u.s. and international law, to these people. asyluma more robust processing. having more judges that can make determinations whether these claims are legitimate. all of these things are difficult. if you just enforce the law, it's a simple proposition. host: you can see the full interview tonight on pbs. here's a full portion. [video clip] >> on june 18 and audiotape>> was published by pro-publica. it led the news for days.

>> when you heard the tape of the children wailing what was your reaction? >> i did not hear the tape. >> i can't believe that. >> i've heard many children cry in my 34 years. >> can i play it for you? >> yeah. she wants to call her aunt. she has the number memorized. what do you think? >> it tugs at your heartstrings. >> how can you not condemn that? >> i've seen a lot of terrible things in my 34 years. we have to address the border.

>> the you not sympathize? >> i am a parent. when the government chooses to enforce the law and they separate the parents prosecuted just like every u.s. citizen gets arrested -- host: let's hear from bob in maryland. independent line you're on with martin smith. caller: i will try to make this as sustained as possible. am -- my family are legal immigrants. i am a stem the situation with the kids and families and all that. refugees,ey are illegal migrants, undocumented migrants as some people say. i just don't think it is fair for us to take in hundreds if not thousands of illegal

immigrants every month. as a matter of principle with our immigration policy or law. iso, my real point, which these people come from cultural fraud,ion and rampant nepotism cronyism. as they grow in number here i'm afraid it will resort back to andr old cultural values make this country similar to where they come from. host: mr. smith, go ahead. guest: i wanted to respond to .omething homan said he said we are arresting them and separating them from their children just like we do with every other citizen that is arrested.

it is true that when someone is arrested for an offense they are taken and booked and separated from their families. on the other hand, their families know where they are. children can visit them wherever they are. it's a big difference. we are not punishing the children when we are arresting somebody in those circumstances. as for the viewer, there seems to be this notion that we had a flood of refugees coming across the border. the numbers are way down. those are the facts that you would get if you talk to border patrol or if you talked to the department of homeland security. the idea that these people are andging a foreign culture that it will be trouble for us, this would have applied over past years but not today where

the numbers are very low. there's also quite a bit of exaggeration about the amount of violence. people talk a lot about ms 13. a previous caller made the correct point that this was a group active in los angeles and -- deported back to el salvador. from there, activities spread into neighboring states of honduras and guatemala. there's lot of exaggeration they the kind of violence engaging. there is a lot of violence within the gang. community the outside are much exaggerated. so i think we have to look at the facts and have sober conversations about what it is and not simply respond to fear. host: this is keep from fort myers florida.

caller: actually i'm from palm bay. for taking my question. for the lady that called and said they should lock up officials my first question is how for taking my question. long has this policy been going on? i know mr. trump, president trump announced this as a deterrent but it's been going on for long time. theext questions, what is veracity of lawyers going down to these countries and educating these people on how to claim for asylum? people, if they could afford a 10,000 -- a $10,000 coyote, they could stay in their country and prosper and work. it's come out here in central florida where these coyotes, whatever gangs they belong to, indentured slave them.

we had an incident in the orlando area where the guy was told to go in and rob this family by this coyote. i imagine this is going on a lot . it's getting into the news reports. all of this is based on emotion and the guy you interviewed is right. when you bring a motion and to justice it doesn't work. i'm not sure exactly what the question is but i will comment. record fromect the the people that i talked to in central america the going rate is about $7,000 for a coyote. and yes, some of these people are able to raise that kind of money from families. ither already in the u.s. some of them are middle-class and able to afford it. they are not all in people. some of them are simply in

trouble and being extorted if or herve money by gangs in for their lives. they been threatened for one reason or another and they raised the money to come up in her. not everybody uses a coyote. there are ways to come in and author mexico without using a coyote as well so not everybody gang.entured to a as far as sending lawyers to help people, there was a program -- president obama put vice president biden in charge of seeing what could be done to help the situation in central america and see what reforms to be done. congress pushed back on this and all they were able to muster for this effort was $750 million. that's not a lot of money. that kind of activity has not

been preferred by the current administration. if there were also efforts under the previous administration to bulk up the number of attorneys and to have a more robust process of taking families that were coming in and monitoring them and ushering them through what can be a long process of court hearings to consider asylum claims. one of those programs that was quite successful, the family case management program, was canceled by the trump administration. , president trump, has said he wants more law enforcement and fewer judges. needmessy situation you people to make judgments about whether claims are legitimate. and without judges, you don't have a robust asylum process and

you will continue to have problems. host: our next caller is from mississippi. democrats line. james, hello. caller: thank you for your work. i wanted to say i am ashamed of our people in this country. allowing this thing to go on right now. i really don't understand why they are sending these parents back home without their children. weant the people to know should not be allowing this thing to happen. the ones that run the country and we should not be putting up with this kind of thing. as a parent of a 26-year-old daughter i could not imagine what these people are going through worried about their children. thank you for your work and have a good day. guest: thank you. i sat in a room in texas where every day people that have crossed illegally are brought into a courtroom to be arraigned. -- day that i sat in their

cameras were not allowed so could not be part of the documentary but it was instructive. 60 men and women in the room who were being arraigned for crossing illegally. the first time you do it, it's a misdemeanor. caught two times it becomes a felony. looking around the room and listening to the judge interview individually all of them, they ofnot fit the profile criminals. these are people that had no records to speak of that was known. when people talk about what's coming up, gang leaders, rapists and whatnot, it behooves them to spend time within this community and see who these people are, look them in the face. hearing.what you're

host: this is going to be the last call from james in south carolina. we are running a bit short on time. caller: thank you. one question for your guest. would you rather temporarily separate children from adults they crossed with a potentially prevent a child or adolescent from being sold into sex or work slavery or would you rather have a blanket for call of not separating them and risk ensuring a life of sexual abuse? guest: that is an interesting dichotomy. i'm not sure if we shouldn't be talking about some other possibilities there. i don't think those are the only options we're looking at. i think those are outliers. host: one interesting thing you learn from your whole experience . things he did not know about this topic for you went into it. guest: that is a big question.

we put this together rather quickly. generally we spent months on a documentary so it was a steep learning curve for me. arearned who these people and i think what you see in the documentary is a reflection of that. of our experience and who they are. a fragile 15-year-old girl. a mother who when i asked what she wanted to tell the president she said i want to apologize to the president for coming here without an invitation. i'm not trying to propagandize or cover over anything here. by and large everyone i met was a decent god-fearing person looking for safety. host: martin smith is the producer of this documentary. you can see it tonight on pbs at

>> c-span's "washington journal," live with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up wednesday morning, the manhattan institute's -- will discuss automation and the future of the u.s. workforce. americaic socialists of 's -- talks about democratic socialism. watch c-span's "the washington -- liveam :00 eastern at 7:00 eastern. join the discussion. the c-span cities tour takes you to las cruces, him new mexico with the help of comcast cable partners we will does -- explore the literary life and history of las cruces along the banks of the rio grande, saturday at 12:00 eastern on book tv. author john hunter explores the impact of the manhattan project on new mexico. cold war and the

atomic west." when he blocked -- brought nuclear physics west, to caltech and new mexico, he changed, particularly new mexico. he brought this state that was poor, had very little infrastructure, and put in the middle of it this federally funded facility that just transformed the state. >> then, author martha andrews explores western frontier women in her book "the women of southern new mexico." on sunday on american history tv, we visit the white sands missile range museum. that has been done out here, people think it has been mostly military testing, but it has involved a lot of civilian uses, as well. a lot of rockets that are fired

out here today are sounding rockets, used to do upper atmospheric research. that is still a big program out here. >> a tour of fort selden comic a military outpost located near the rio grande, established to keep he's in the region. watch the cities tour of las cruces, new mexico saturday at noon eastern on c-span two's book tv and the sunday on american history tv on c-span3. working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. >> now we take you to the carnegie endowment in washington for a look at russia's involvement in the middle east. first, a panel on russia's relationship with israel and iran, as well as a panel on russia's use of private military companies in syria. posted by the jamestown foundation, this is about two hours.